Like Spruce Grove, municipalities across the country have expressed their concerns that this change will negatively impact municipalities, other levels of government, and the business community.

According to city clerk Tania Shepherd, the suggested changes will also impact the city.

"Essentially, the data that is gathered from the federal census is used to supplement our own data that we gather when we draw municipal census and it's used for our planning purposes, particularly long range things, like the Municipal Development Plan," she said.

"As far as the community is concerned, FCSS makes use of lot the data because you are looking at economic brackets, education, these kinds of things that are contained in the federal census that (impact) how we develop our programs for the community."

The federal government said the NHS is the result of complaints received from Canadians about the long-form census being an intrusion of privacy.

The Federal Government further stated it does not believe it is appropriate to force Canadians to divulge detailed personal information under threat of prosecution.

According to city administration, concern has been expressed by many governments, individuals, and organizations regarding the NHS and the validity of the data it will generate.

It is believed the voluntary nature of the NHS means that some socio-economic groups will likely be under-represented (i.e. aboriginal Canadians, new immigrants, low-income neighbourhoods, and very wealthy households).

City council has decided to send a letter to the Minister of Industry Canada and the Member of Parliament for Edmonton - Spruce Grove, expressing its concerns, but not before some healthy debates over the impact of the changes.

"I can't believe they are choosing to do this. I know a lot of businesses that rely on this census information to conduct their business properly and they are very fearful of what kind of impact this will have on their businesses," said Ald. Wayne Rothe.

Ald. Randy Palivoda on the other hand couldn't see how switching from a long form to a short form census would yield unreliable and biased data or jeopardize the city's socio-economic data.

He did however, agree that a short form census will result in gaps in the results due to fewer questions asked.

"It's the same people filling out the same forms," he said.

"If the results are biased/(unbiased) in the long form it will also be biased/(unbiased) in the short-form."

Ald. Louise Baxter and Bill Steinburg saw this as another way for the federal government to dump the responsibility of data collecting and the cost of it onto the municipalities.

"If we are not getting the information that we need then we are going to be adding that to our own census, which then will possibly add to the cost of it," said Baxter.

The short-form, voluntary census will go out to 4.5 million households across Canada next year.